Defense suggests slain Rockland mom's son may have faked evidence

Defense attorneys intterrogated the son of slain Rockland mother Tina Gonsalves for nearly three hours in cross-examination on Tuesday, calling Aaron Dorsett a “pathological liar” and suggesting he may have faked evidence to make it look like someone had broken into the family’s apartment.

By Neal Simpson

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Neal Simpson

Posted Jun. 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 12, 2013 at 12:02 PM

By Neal Simpson

Posted Jun. 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 12, 2013 at 12:02 PM

BROCKTON

» Social News

Gonsalves

For nearly two years after his mother was shot to death in the family’s Rockland apartment, Aaron Dorsett told investigators the same disjointed story about how he’d come to buy the gun he used to shoot the intruder that he said killed his mother.

It wasn’t until May 28, the day before Terrell L. Nicholas and Orlando H. Kavanaugh were to go on trial for the murder of Dorsett’s mother, Tina Gonsalves, that he changed his story. The gun, he told prosecutors, had been stolen from a man he was charged with robbing a year before the shooting.

During three hours of cross-examination Tuesday, Dorsett acknowledged again and again that he had lied to police and a grand jury about many of the events that led up to his mother’s fatal shooting in 2011, including who fired the first shot. He said he told the lies because he didn’t want to go to jail, even though prosecutors had cut him a deal that would have allowed him to escape prosecution for possession of the gun and drugs found in the apartment after the shooting.

The testimony of Dorsett, 21, has become central to prosecutors’ case as they try to convince jurors that Kavanaugh, 30, broke into the family’s apartment and shot Gonsalves while Nicholas, 27, waited outside in a rented pickup truck. Prosecutors say they will back up Dorsett’s testimony with DNA evidence, phone records and ballistics analysis.

In opening arguments last Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Flannigan told jurors that they probably would not like Dorsett, who admitted in testimony that he has sold drugs to high school students and was once charged with punching two teachers. But Flannigan told jurors they could trust Dorsett’s testimony because of the corroborating evidence.

Nicholas’ attorney, David Sorrenti, called Dorsett a “pathological liar” and an “admitted perjurer” who only told the truth when it served him. Under Sorrenti’s questioning, Dorsett said he initially lied to police about details ranging from his drug-dealing activity and where he got his gun to the order in which shots were fired in his family’s apartment and whether he wrestled with the intruder.

Dorsett said he lied to police because he was on probation at the time of the shooting and was worried he would be sent to jail after police found a stash of drugs, including Percocet and crack cocaine, in his bedroom.

Page 2 of 2 - In one series of questions, which Sorrenti fired off in rapid succession without stopping to let Dorsett answer, the attorney suggested that Dorsett had faked evidence to make it look like someone had broken into the apartment.

“You didn’t smash that window after the fact, right? You didn’t remove that screen from the window, right? You didn’t set this up to make it look like there was an intruder in the house, correct?” Sorrenti asked. “You wouldn’t do that and we have your word on that, right?”

Under questioning by Flannigan, Dorsett said he agreed to testify even though prosecutors refused to give him additional protection from charges related to the stolen gun after he admitted to lying about it.

John Thompson, a friend of Dorsett’s who police say was in the apartment during the shooting, also took the stand Tuesday. Defense attorneys were expected to continue questioning him today.